One of my biggest concerns with the NHL of today is that is hard (impossible?) to build a team that is as good as used to win Stanley Cups. This is a direct consequence of the salary cap and rapid expansion. A team cannot afford to hold onto all of the talent it produces if it drafts well and there are more other teams to gobble it up when it comes available on the open market. Teams cannot get as strong as they did in the past. For the most part, we do not see any more elite teams.

Puck Daddy began their retrospective of the decade today by listing the nine best teams of the decade. This is a ranking of all of the nine teams that won Stanley Cups in the years 2000-2009. This is an unscientific listing, where the criteria to rank teams is unclear. That said, the results of their rankings more or less agree with my opinions (and likely those of most impartial observers). The top three teams are the 2002 Detroit Red Wings, 2001 Colorado Avalanche and the 2000 New Jersey Devils. The top teams are pre-lockout.

The players will all rally around the coach and the jerseys that they wear. This is a team. They play for each other and for our passionate fans. The players will want to thank Alex for his MVP talents and we hope to NOT miss a beat. We will test our mettle now. This may be a small blessing in disguise as each and every player will have to step up their game to replace the one-of-a-kind talents of Alex Ovechkin.

A Southeast Division champion with 112 points in the first regular season following the lockout, Peter Laviolette’s group had four 30-goal scorers including Eric Staal’s 45-goal, 100-point career year.

Outside of their star center, it was a solid but unspectacular team, and was carried through the postseason by rookie goalie Cam Ward’s Conn Smythe performance (.2.14 GAA, .920 save percentage).

First, it sure looks like this team is moving somewhere at the end of the season. When the NHL governors convene in December, Gary Bettman will deliver a status report on trying to find local buyers, and this time around the questions are going to be tougher when he tries the “all is well” speech.

Second, any sex appeal this team had is gone because Wayne Gretzky is gone. Dave Tippet’s a heck of a good hockey coach but he’s not Gretzky and the media interest there once was in the Coyotes because of Gretzky is now gone.

The team is 9-5-0 despite last night’s loss, a terrific start by all measures. But the Coyotes play in a tough division and a playoff berth seems unlikely.

The learning curve lies ahead for Tavares, but he should have no problem with it. He has Crosby’s demeanour: respectful, ready to learn, yet in a hurry to take in the knowledge.

(Doug) Weight, who recently had H1N1 and jokes that his primary responsibility in taking the team’s franchise player under his wing is “Don’t give him The Swine,” would bet you an NHL paycheque that Tavares will turn into a superstar.

“He just wants to be an islander and be a great player. He’s on his way,” the tutor said. “His shot, his savvy. He’s got it, he gets it, and he wants it.

From 1998 to 2004, (Dave) Dryden served as the NHL’s goaltending “watchdog,” checking to ensure equipment was kept to size limitations and advising the league on what might be done to improve safety as well as increase goal scoring.

He may himself be a former goaltender, but he is also one who has come to believe the position has reached a point where it is overly dominant for the good of a team sport.

“It’s spun out of control,” he says….

The NHL’s solution to dominant goaltending has been to allow, for the most part, the oversized padding in order to offer the greatest protection but then to adjust the rules in a manner in which the padding is somewhat cancelled out.

This has created a game in which, as Dryden puts it, “We’ve got to have ways to get to the goalie.” It has created the era of the ugly goal. It has made “crashing the goaltender” a legitimate tactic when, at one time, it was forbidden.

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